Early Works is an exhaustive compilation of the first decade of the poems and stories of Z.B.McClure. Included are family photos, rare personal photos, photos of 1st draft manuscripts of many of his early poems. Also some biography and memoir materia
Read often--anything from articles to the classics--absorb as much as you can, and write only when you must.
Background
Information
My name is pronounced "Male-e"; I was named after a somewhat-affluent friend of my parents, Melie Manning. Melie and his wife were unable to conceive a male heir to perpetuate the family name, so he promised my parents a hefty sum if they would name their next son after him. My parents honored the agreement but Melie died before he could fulfill his promise, thus I inherited his name--a name I detested as a youth because my peers occasionally taunted me, with jeers like: "Melie is a girl's name!" However, as an adult, I realized that it is a unique name and I embraced it. My mother is a farmer's daughter from NC and my father was a retired soldier from RI. At heart I am a barefooted country-boy from the boondocks and possibly the only person you know who has picked cotton...which is sure to conflict with the sophisticated/urbane image some of my Readers might have of me.
My fascination with English began at an early age; I learned to spell/read almost before I could construct a proper sentence--actually, I still haven't quite gotten the knack of it! I began writing poetry in 1975, at age twenty, with an eigth-grade education: Bored, lonely, thinking about my teenage sweetheart, I decided to write the lyrics for a song. As an audiophile, I like a variety of music and I enjoyed the creative process so much that I entertained the notion of a songwriting career. However, several months later, while soliciting feedback on my "song" collection, I heard the words that would change the course of my life, "These aren't songs, they're poems." Years after publishing a Selected Poems collection I completed a Revised and Enlarged edition entitled "Little Boy Blue." In fact, the poetry and prose featured on this site are from same.